Powerful partnerships, cool collaboration, touching tales are just a few alliterations that come to mind when you watch Stories from Orangethorpe. Bridging the gap within generations is exactly what students from Orangethorpe School and Fullerton Union High School (FUHS) are doing with their Stories from Orangethorpe project. This is a theater for young audiences collaboration between the FUHS Theater Program and the Orangethorpe School Primary and Upper Multi-Age Program. 

Students in grades K-6 at Orangethorpe School wrote narrative stories as part of their Writer’s Workshop assignments. Ten stories were selected for the Stories from Orangethorpe project. Students in the Theater Program at FUHS worked with the stories to create scripts and will be acting out the skits based on the stories. From Mia, the first-grade student, to upper grade fifth and sixth grade students are future storywriters. These stories, some fictional and some based on real life experiences, are adapted into live stage performances by FUHS theater students. 

The ability to keep the attention of young TK students to adults alike is never an easy task yet somehow, the high school students were able to accomplish this through interactive, engaging, humorous, and entertaining skits. Interwoven within the skits are life lessons for all ages ranging from listening skills to bullying to doing the right thing. Shows were held at Orangethorpe School for students with additional shows performed at Fullerton Union High School on December 7th and 8th as a fundraiser for both schools’ programs.

The Fullerton School District is located in northern Orange County, California and serves over 11,600 students in grades TK – 8th. The Fullerton School District includes 21 schools, 15 elementary schools, two K-8th grade schools, three middle schools, and a distance learning and home school model. The mission of the Fullerton School District is to work collaboratively with the community to provide an innovative, high-quality educational program for all students in a safe learning environment. The District motto, “Great Schools – Successful Kids” exemplifies the belief that all students will achieve academic excellence, acquire interpersonal skills, and develop technological expertise to contribute as productive citizens in a democratic society. For more information, call 714/447-7400 or visit http://www.fullertonsd.org.